I actually wouldn't mind seeing them try. Heck, the US should even give them a 3 day advance warning of their attack, so that every man, woman and child has the chance to flee the country before it's razed to the ground.

dameron:My fear is that he'll float a nuke into the port of Long Beach. I have no doubt they could do this. This is exactly the scenario Oppenheimer presented to Congress back in 1945.

<i>Sen. Millikin: We... have mine-detecting devices, which are rather effective... I was wondering if anything of that kind might be available to use as a defense against that particular type of use of atomic bombs.

Dr. Oppenheimer: If you hired me to walk through the cellars of Washington to see whether there were atomic bombs, I think my most important tool would be a screwdriver to open the crates and look. I think that just walking by, swinging a little gadget would not give me the information </i>

It'd be REALLY hard to find a well hidden atomic bomb. Even given 1940's technology, the radioactive plutonium core of an implosion type bomb would weight less than 20 pounds.

This is an extremely important point that nearly everyone overlooks. Best Korea doesn't need missiles to deliver a nuke to take out a US city.

It would be very easy to conceal a nuke in a shipping cargo container and set it off when it gets into SF Bay. Send it part by part to Pakistan as innocent looking bits and pieces (baseball sized chuck of plutonium goes in a tractor engine block), assemble it, put it in a lead box; and into a container headed to the US. You wouldn't even have to bribe people to look the other way. Shielding a nuke so that radiation detectors can't find it is completely trivial, six inches of lead will do the job just fine.

Pakistan got alot of their nuke parts from NK (or was it the other way around?) so, it can be done.

Or, put it on a submarine and send it on a one way trip. You don't have to go all the way to California, Tokyo, US bases in South Korea, or Pearl Harbor are all alot closer.

Probably NK is just running at the mouth, but since they *can* deliver a nuke already, I think this needs to be taken seriously. I'd suggest a nuclear air burst to take out the electronics of the entire country, and then conventionally bomb every military-related installation into complete dust. It's a bad scenario, but I see no particular reason to think that NK is batshiat insane and means business this time.

dameron:My fear is that he'll float a nuke into the port of Long Beach. I have no doubt they could do this. This is exactly the scenario Oppenheimer presented to Congress back in 1945.

<i>Sen. Millikin: We... have mine-detecting devices, which are rather effective... I was wondering if anything of that kind might be available to use as a defense against that particular type of use of atomic bombs.

Dr. Oppenheimer: If you hired me to walk through the cellars of Washington to see whether there were atomic bombs, I think my most important tool would be a screwdriver to open the crates and look. I think that just walking by, swinging a little gadget would not give me the information </i>

It'd be REALLY hard to find a well hidden atomic bomb. Even given 1940's technology, the radioactive plutonium core of an implosion type bomb would weight less than 20 pounds.

This, this is the only thing that has me concerned.

They can't get a missle over here, but a warhead in the cargo hold of some shiatball oil fired freighter?

Mr.Poops:I actually wouldn't mind seeing them try. Heck, the US should even give them a 3 day advance warning of their attack, so that every man, woman and child has the chance to flee the country before it's razed to the ground.

They won't raze the whole country, just the capital. There really isn't anything else of significance besides empty farms and starving peasants.

oldfarthenry:This is like recess with the special-needs kid in his wheelchair ramming the sports jock in the ankles.If the jock punches Timmy in the face he's deemed a bully. If he does nothing Timmy will pinch his nuts with his reaching stick.

Come on USA, let's just liberate North Korea! They might not have oil, but think of all the kimchi and rice plus barbeque pork that we can "develop"! Better to take their kimchi, rice, and pork now than get blasted by nuclear bombs!

Assuming Best Korea's Troll-In-Chief actually *has* nukes to spare to throw at someone, and assuming he actually has a missile to attach them to that can fly further than 1,000km, and assuming he has a guidance system that can actually allow a warhead to come within 5km of his intended target, he *might* actually be able to cause some damage... right before we turn Best Korea into the World's Biggest Glass-Covered Self-Lighting Parking Lot.

GAT_00:CaptSacto: That's what makes me wonder if Un is really calling the shots.

I saw some article speculating this is all trying to stop a coup from happening, but I don't understand how this would stop a coup either.

Right now, Kim is not personally responsible for any of the atrocities and human rights violations going on in Best Korea (in that he didn't order them, he's just perpetuating them). His generals and advisors, however, are. If Kim wants to make things better and normalize relations with the West, everyone else gets to stand in front of the Hague, and they know it--so if Kim HAS been making such noises, the generals have likewise been making noises to the effect of "Nice lifestyle you got here, 'Dear Leader', shame if anything happened to it."

OTOH, if Kim starts a war he knows he has to lose, he can surrender to the US on his own terms, which would include throwing his loyal generals under an Abrams tank (literally or figuratively, doesn't much matter) while he keeps his pudgy head intact. It's a win-win for him at this point.

ClavellBCMI:Assuming Best Korea's Troll-In-Chief actually *has* nukes to spare to throw at someone, and assuming he actually has a missile to attach them to that can fly further than 1,000km, and assuming he has a guidance system that can actually allow a warhead to come within 5km of his intended target, he *might* actually be able to cause some damage... right before we turn Best Korea into the World's Biggest Glass-Covered Self-Lighting Parking Lot.

We lost face on the world stage when Bush invaded Iraq.

Do we get another peace prize when we incinerate millions of Nork civillians?